non-LD Children Research Articles

Teachers' Behavior Toward LD and Non-LD Children

Teachers' differential behavior toward isolated/rejected LD children and toward popular non-LD children was assessed in fourth, fifth and sixth grade classrooms. Differential behavior was defined by classroom observations of the interaction patterns and sequences of behavior that occurred between teachers and target students. In addition, an intervention strategy designed to make teachers aware of their behaviors was employed. Results indicated that prior to the awareness program, teachers initiated significantly more interactions, responded with greater frequency of corrective behavior, and used more negative verbal and nonverbal behaviors with isolated/rejected LD than they used with popular non-LD children. Post-awareness, the quantity of teachers' interactions remained essentially the same; however, the negative quality of these interactions was significantly reduced. When attempting to promote a more positive social climate for LD children who are low in social status, direct intervention with teachers' specific behaviors rather than with their general attitudes is most important.

Psychometric Factors Affecting Multidisciplinary Team Identification of Learning Disabled Children

Data were examined for 223 pupils in two school districts referred for an initial psychoeducational evaluation because of a suspected learning disability. A multidisciplinary team judged each pupil to be either learning disabled (LD) or non-learning disabled (non-LD). The psychometric profiles of the LD and non-LD pupils were examined through MANOVA and discriminant-analysis procedures. Comparisons across LD status, district, and age variables indicated that only severity of academic underachievement consistently differentiated the LD and non-LD pupils. In addition, in one district the younger LD children were indistinguishable from the younger non-LD children. Comparisons across districts revealed that the LD children's profiles differed despite the use of identical eligibility criteria in both districts. Implications for evaluation of referred students are discussed.

Learning Disabled and Non-LD Children at Play

This investigation used sociometric measures in conjunction with observational techniques in studying the social integration of learning disabled elementary school children. Thirty-four learning disabled and non-LD children were observed on the school playground for a total of 90 minutes each. Few substantive differences between the LD and non-LD groups were observed. The learning disabled children tended to play alone more often. Sociometric questionnaires administered to classmates of the experimental group children indicated that the learning disabled children had lower status than the non-LD children, and that the non-LD children played with about half of the LD children for whom they expressed liking.

The selective attention of learning-disabled children: three studies.

Three studies were performed to assess the selective attention of learning-disabled (LD) children. In the first study, 10 LD and 16 non-LD children were given the Speeded Classification task. LD children sorted cards more slowly than non-LD children, and children in both groups had trouble ignoring irrelevant information. Non-LD children became more accurate across trials, while LD children did not. In the second study, one group of 13 LD children was taught to accompany their Speeded Classification sorting verbally in an attempt to improve their performance; the other group of LD children (n = 12) received no such instruction. The experimental group, however, showed poorer performance across trials compared with the control group. In the third study, the children from Experiments 1 and 2 were given the Central-Incidental Learning Task. Older children learned more central memory items than younger children and, LD children learned more incidentally than non-LD children.

Accuracy of Learning Disabled Students' Self-Prediction of Decoding

Two experiments were conducted to investigate LD children's ability to predict and evaluate their own oral decoding performance. In the first experiment, LD and non-LD children predicted whether they could correctly pronounce words which varied in pronounceability, as defined by orthographic structure. Results indicated that non-LD children's predictions were more sensitive to orthographic variations than were those of the LD subjects. In a second experiment subjects were required to predict performance of nonsense words from a standardized reading test, whose items were of graduated difficulty. A “range” was constructed for each child spanning the easiest item on which a child made an error to the most difficult item to which he/she responded correctly. Groups of LD and normal children were established, matched on number of words in a “range” and accuracy within the range. Results tentatively suggested that when words were individualized in this manner, LD children were as competent as non-LD children in predicting and evaluating their own performance.

Stroop color-word test: A screening measure of selective attention to differentiate LD from non LD children

The Stroop Color-Word Test was used to measure selective attention in LD (N = 45) and nonLD (N = 50) children. Results indicated that LD children have a significant weakness in the process of selective attention when compared to nonLD children. On the Stroop, no significant sex differences were noted with nonLD children, although LD boys tended toward greater interference proneness in a trend that approached significance. Findings suggest that the Stroop is a parsimonious and effective screening measure in differentiating LD from nonLD children.

Impact of Different Definitions of Learning Disabilities on the Number of Students Identified

Despite many proposed definitions of learning disabilities and efforts to operationalize these definitions, there continues to be little agreement on either the definition of learning disabilities or the criteria that should be used to identify learning-disabled (LD) students. The number of students identified by each of 14 operational definitions that were based on either ability-achievement discrepancies, low achievement, or scatter were examined. The relationship between each definition and actual school classification was also examined. Subjects were 48 school-identified LD children and 96 non-LD children; all had previously been administered a battery of psychoeducational tests. Classification of each child as LD or non-LD according to each of 14 operational definitions indicated that different definitions identify significantly different numbers of students. The three categories of definitions did not discriminate LD and non-LD children consistently. Within the limitations of the present study, the prognosis is for continued confusion in the field of learning disabilities. Implications and recommendations for the educational system are discussed.

Cognitive strategies used by learning disabled children: does hyperactivity always make things worse?

The maturity and style of problem solving of learning disabled children was compared to that of children not learning disabled. Of the LD group, those labeled as hyperactive were compared with those without such a label. Thirty-one children participated in the study. Each child was administered several tests of intellectual functioning, conceptual tempo, conservation, and conceptual strategy, the emphasis being on assessment of their cognitive style rather than on their acquisition of new information or the use of attentional skill. Teachers rated each child on a variety of behavioral, emotional, and social scales. Results indicated that LD children performed less well than the non-LD children on tasks requiring internal strategies or plans. With one exception, hyperactive and nonhyperactive LD children performed similarly; the hyperactive LD children did use a less mature strategy than the nonhyperactive LD children in one conceptual style task. Across groups, children with more behavioral problems also were children who used less mature cognitive strategies.

Classroom Behavior of Learning Disabled Children

Teacher ratings and observational data were gathered on 22 pairs of LD and non-LD children in the second and fourth grades in an effort to compare their task-oriented, social, and affective behavior patterns in regular class settings. Results indicated that task orientation was the primary dimension of adaptive behavior discriminating the groups for both measures. While LD and non-LD students were observed performing similar classroom activities during the same periods of the day, data on contextual settings suggested that LD students were more often placed in small groups than in individual or large-group settings. The consistency of findings across previous observational studies was noted as well as the importance of considering ecological factors of the classroom in future research and program planning.

Classroom Behaviors during Small Group Instruction and Learning Performance in Learning Disabled and Nondisabled Children

A six-category observation instrument was developed to obtain frequency counts on the behaviors of 42 learning disabled (LD) children during small group instruction. Children were observed for 6-minute periods on each of 5 days during a 3-week instructional sequence in phonics. The sample was divided into average (A) and below average (BA) achievement groups on the basis of posttest measures administered one day after instruction. Analyses of covariance revealed that children in the BA group exhibited significantly more inattentive, non-academic, and impulsive behaviors and were out of their seats more during instruction than children in the A group. In addition, frequencies of non-task-oriented behaviors correlated negatively with posttest performance (r = -.20 to -.75). Observations were also made on a comparison group of 28 non-LD children during similar instruction in phonics. These children exhibited overall lower frequencies of inappropriate classroom behaviors. In addition, only one significant correlation was obtained between non-LD children’s behaviors and posttest performance (r = 0.08 to -0.38). Implications for identifying and modifying inappropriate task-related behaviors of disabled children are discussed.

The pattern of exceptionality across domains in learning disabled children

The purpose of this study was to examine the intellectual, academic and behavioral competencies in learning disabled and normally achieving children. Fifty-eight pairs of children (LD and non-LD) in first, second, and third grade were administered the WISC-R and the PIAT; were observed with the SCAN Observational System in their regular classroom; and had teachers who filled out the Classroom Behavior Inventory. Results indicated that the LD children performed l less well on the WISC-R and the PIAT. There was no evidence of greater variability within the LD children nor was there a different pattern of performance in comparison to normally achieving children. The learning disabled children were consistently rated by their classroom teachers as displaying less desirable classroom behavior. The Observational System SCAN corroborated these results, indicating that LD children were more off-task than non-LD children. These result suggest that we re-examine the definition of learning disabilities in the public scholl to put more emphasis on behavioral indices and to refocus the interpretation of test scatter as an index of learning disabilities.

Learning disability and hyperactivity: Deficits in selective attention

Differences in performance on a variety of cognitive measures and differences in patterns of ability between learning disabled (LD) and nonlearning disabled (non-LD) children were examined. Younger and older LD and non-LD children were administered tests of central and incidental learning and selective attention. Teacher ratings of classroom hyperactivity were also examined. LD children, particularly the younger ones, performed significantly more poorly than non-LD children on both attention/memory tasks. Performance on the two tasks was consistently interrelated for the non-LD children and less consistently so for the LD subjects. Hyperactivity was also related to poorer performance on the cognitive measures. Results are discussed in terms of components of selective attention.

Eliminating Differences between Learning Disabled and Nondisabled Children on a Paired-Associate Learning Task

AbstractThirty learning disabled (LD) children and thirty nondisabled children were compared on a paired-associate learning task that simulated the process of sight word learning. Two instructional variables that have been hypothesized as contributing to overloading in children were manipulated during the teaching of 16 symbol-word associations. Stimulus complexity was manipulated by showing single or multiple geometric objects as stimuli for word responses. Response competition was manipulated by excluding or including previously learned items in decks of four objects. Results indicate that while the LD group performed lower than the non-LD group, reducing stimulus complexity and response competition differentially facilitated learning by LD children more than non-LD children. The study demonstrated that differences in LD and non-LD children’s paired-associate learning can be eliminated by using the instructional modifications.

Diagnostic Test Pattern Differences among LD, ED, EMH, and Multi-Handicapped Students

AbstractThis study examined diagnostic test data in conjunction with familial and cultural information taken from the case files of children who had been diagnosed as LD, EMH, or ED, multi-handicapped or other, to determine their discriminative efficacy in differentiating LD children from non-LD children. A total of 1324 children between the ages of 6 and 17 years with about average intelligence, as measured by performance on the WISC-R (X FSIQ = 87.30, SD = 15.68), were used in this study. Six discriminant functions analyses were performed on variables selected from the above three sources of information. The results of these discriminant analyses consistently failed to discriminate LD children from the other groups. A transpose factor analysis performed on these variables showed considerable overlap of variables between factors. A review of research examining the discriminative efficacy of widely used diagnostic tests indicates that these tests have little utility in distinguishing LD from non-LD childr...

The impact of resource programs upon the self-concept and peer acceptance of learning disabled children

The purpose of the study was to measure the impact of resource interventions upon the level of peer acceptance and self-concept. Subjects were 82 children from 5 elementary schools in central Pennsylvania. The Experimental group (N = 41) consisted of learning disabled children in regular classes with resource room interventions. The Control group (N = 41) consisted of nonlearning disabled children stratified by sex and classrooms. All subjects were group administered a self-concept measure and a peer acceptance measure early in the school year and again at the end of the school year. Separate 3-way analysis of variances with repeated measures revealed that the LD children were significantly lower in self-concept scores and peer acceptance ratings at both testing occasions than were the nonLD children. The resource based program did not result in significant changes in either self-concept or peer acceptance after one year for the LD group.